Mark Warburton had planned to restore Tendayi Darikwa to the Nottingham Forest starting line-up against Burton Albion but was persuaded to stick with Eric Lichaj following his stoic performance at Derby – and thinks he made the “right call” after seeing Lichaj play a starring role in a timely victory.

When he broke the news to Darikwa that he would not start the game against Derby, Warburton had told the former Burnley man that he would return against Burton, to add some more attacking threat down the right side.

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“I’ll be honest with you – I told Tendayi that, with this being a home game, I wanted our full-backs to be more attacking,” said Warburton.

Tendayi Darikwa

“But at home, I felt that width would hurt Burton, with the formation they play and my plan was to bring Tendayi back in for this game. But Eric did exceptionally well last week – and benefitted, fitness wise, because he pushed himself hard last week.

“I think it was the right call to play Eric today, but Tendayi did not deserve to be dropped and I want to mention that as well. Because going forward he has a huge future here.

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“But Eric Lichaj is a top professional. He earned his chance with that performance at Derby and you can only ever be honest with the players.

“I like to be honest with players and I felt bad because I had told Tendayi that he would be back in the side today – but Eric did very well at Derby.